“Guys, I think Adele is engaged omfg,” tweeted one fan after seeing Adele, 33, at the 2022 BRIT Awards red carpet. Ahead of the Feb. 8 event, Adele walked the carpet in a gorgeous black gown, but fans were obsessed with the giant diamond ring she was wearing on THAT finger. Her boyfriend Rich Paul didn’t walk the red carpet with her and wasn’t seated by Adele when she accepted her first award. However, fans kept talking about Rich. “Ermm… Did Adele just casually let the world know she’s engaged to Rich Paul by wearing this WHOPPER teardrop diamond ring at the #Brits,” asked UK journalist Ellie Phillips. “I always get it wrong, please, is that ring on Adele’s ring finger? Like is that the hand you wear it on when you’re engaged?” asked correspondent Ọrẹ Ogunbiyi. Hollywood Life reached out to Rich to comment on the absence but did not immediately hear back.
Where was Rich? The 40-year-old sports agent was spotted in LA the day before the BRITs, partying with friends/clients Meek Mill, 34, Kevin Hart, 42, and LeBron James, 37. Clearly, he couldn’t make the awards in time, presumably celebrating Adele from afar.
This might quiet down any talk of a split. Ahead of the BRIT Awards, Adele took a moment to address the speculation that her relationship with Rich had come to an end. “Hiya,” she wrote at the start of a Feb. 1 Instagram post, which included her holding a playing card (the 10 of Hearts, if anyone was counting.) “So, I’m really happy to say that I am performing at the Brits next week!! Anddddd I’ll also be popping in to see Graham for a chat on the couch while I’m in town too! I’m looking forward to it!” At the end of the message, she threw in a bit of a message to all those proclaiming her relationship dead: “Oh, and Rich sends his love [heart emoji].”
Adele shed some light on the origins of her and Rich’s relationship while speaking with Rolling Stone. She said they met on a dance floor at a mutual friend’s birthday party years ago. The two reconnected a week after her the death of her father, Mark Evans, and engaged in the most “incredible, openhearted, and easiest” relationship she’s ever been in. She initially kept the relationship under wraps, and didn’t tell anyone about it. “I didn’t really tell many of my friends at the beginning because I wanted to keep it to myself,” she told RS. But, Adele couldn’t keep it a secret for long. When the two cuddled up together at Game 5 of the NBA Finals, the cat was out of the bag.
Since then, Rich has given Adele the love and stability she’s needed, especially in times of hardship. When Adele was forced to postpone her Vegas residency, Rich stepped up to comfort her. “They both know that they have to reset and figure this all out,” a source told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY. “They are not only a team romantically, but they are both business-minded.” A second insider weighed in, telling HollywoodLife that Adele has been she’s been leaning on Rich as a support system because that is what people do when they are going through something difficult; they lean on the ones that they love.”